Checking presence of files regardless of folder location.

[garylovesbeer]

Hi everyone, new user and forum member.

Thank you to the authors on the software - it is truly useful and very user friendly.

Now my first question. I have searched the forums as best I can with little success. Here goes.

Is it possible to ascertain if files listed in the left panel are present anywhere in the right panel regardless of folder position.

I have files extracted from an OS X Photos library masters folder and I want to verify that all files/photos are present on my NAS before I delete them from the Photos library. I have already sorted the these files along with thousands of others into directores/subdirectories on the NAS so my need is to compare the files in one folder in the left panel to many hundreds of folders in the right hand panel with no need to know which folder they are in in the right folder.

Doable or am I dreaming?

Thanks in advance.

[David.P]

Hi @all,

just found this thread by googling for "check presence of files regardless of folder"...

I so much second this question and would be glad if there was any way to do that.

Thanks for ideas!

[Gianni1962]

Try AllDup

[David.P]

Yeah, AllDup is awesome and also my tool of choice!

However, I couldn't find an option to find "non-duplicates" there?

It only seems to list the actual duplicates.

Edit, just saw that the feature is listed there

"List non-duplicate files"

However, I can't figure out where in the program the feature is :o

Edit 2 -- found it :)


It seems that the "Non-duplicate files" only can be viewed in the log file.

[David.P]

...however, I can't seem to make it work. AllDup lists thousands of files that are on both paths as allegedly "Non-duplicate files" in the log file.

This is even when they have the same name, date and size. These are my comparison settings:


Btw., what does "Ignore Timestamp" mean in the context of "Compare File last modified date"?

Does it check only the date and day but not the time of the day then?

[Gianni1962]

Ignore timestamp
This option enables you to ignore the timestamp when using the search criteria create date or last modified date.
It consider only the Date.

Ignore seconds
This option enables you to ignore the seconds from the timestamp when using the search criteria create date or last modified date.
It consider the Date, the hours and the minutes but not the seconds.

[Gianni1962]

Use this guide at your own risk.
If you don't fully understand what's going on, don't do it!

Scenario in FFS
Mirroring of LEFT to RIGHT
LEFT folder C:\Users\Gianni\Pictures\
RIGHT folder J:\Pictures\

(from now on I will use simply LEFT and RIGHT to refer to those folders)

- on the LEFT the files/photos are all together (but not mandatory)
- on the RIGHT the files/photos are already sorted in subfolders (but not mandatory)

In FFS it is not possible to know if a file present on the LEFT is present on the RIGHT in some subfolder if the relative subfolder location is not the same.

In AllDup, following my guide, you can find those files and then you can copy them in an ad-hoc subfolder on the RIGHT (J:\Pictures\AAA\).

The options not mentioned are to be considered set to their defaults.

- in "Source Folders"
in the "Search which drive or folder for duplicate file" section, make sure to select only (add if needed) the LEFT and RIGHT folders and make sure is selected for both the option [x] "Search all subfolders"

in the "Compare method" section, select:
(*) "Compare only files between different source folders"

- in "Search Method"
in the "Comparison Criteria" section, select:
[x] File name
[x] File extension
[x] File size
[x] File last modified date

- in "Search Options"
in the "Search Options" section, select:
[x] Show only files without duplicates at the search result

"Start Search"

When finished, at the "Search Result" window ...

click on the arrow at the left of [ ] "Files without duplicates" to view the result
click on the Path column to sort on it, click again to reverse the sort

From the top row menu:
- open "Select", "Select all files recursively in a specific folder" and select the LEFT folder

Verify the selection and if ok ...

From the top row menu:
- open "Search Result", "File Manager - Delete, copy, move or rename selected files..."

At the "File Manager" window ...

in the "Which groups should be processed?" section, select:
(*) All groups (ignore filter)
select [x] Don't process any groups with all files selected

in the "What actions is to be performed?" section, select:
(*) Copy files to a folder

in the "Folder" section:
select the destination folder, the RIGHT folder plus a subfolder to be created ad-hoc (J:\Pictures\AAA\)
deselect [ ] Create subfolder(s)
select [x] Keep folder structure of the files

Then press OK

That's all.

Some screenshots in attachment.

[Gianni1962]

Some screenshots in attachment.

[David.P]

Thank you very much Gianni, that's very helpful!

I now managed to find most, if not all files that are present only on one side of the synced folder pair, regardless of the files' sub-folder location. This is an amazing feature of AllDup.

Thank you again and
Best regards
David